Making Up the Rules
by Dukes126plus
Summary: His cousin’s acting like the brat he’s never completely outgrown being, distracting Luke when there’s work to be done. There’s no other option but to yell at him. From Hughie Hogg Strikes Again. /Warnings: slash, incest./


The boys go camping a lot in season four, a fact that I found rather convenient. In _Hughie Hogg Strikes Again_, they head off for camp after driving around in "disguise" -- a nondescript gray loaner car and baseball caps. I'm sure no one recognized them...

* * *

The first thing Bo does is to snatch the old cap off of Luke's head. He could be making himself useful by grabbing his own sleeping bag out of the trunk of the standard gray loaner car, but no, he's got more important things to do.

"Bo!" It's reflex. His cousin's acting like the brat he's never completely outgrown being, distracting Luke when there's work to be done. There's no other option but to yell at him.

Bo has his own reflexes, in the form of a shrug. "You look stupid in a baseball hat."

That's nothing Luke needs to respond to. There are vastly more important things to do, such as setting up camp. He's got two armloads of sleeping bags, tarp and cooking pots, and it would be nice if Bo would carry more than an ill-gotten baseball cap in his hand.

Besides, he doesn't look anything like stupid in a baseball cap. He played the game longer and better than Bo ever did, pretty much from the time he could hold a bat, on into high school and eventually the military. In fact some of the best games of his life were the pick up kind, on a base camp compound or out on the old school playground.

Yeah, come to think of it, his favorite moments were back when he and Bo would scare up a couple of the guys, maybe Brody, Enos, Cooter, even Daisy if they just needed even teams. The kind where more often than not he wound up yelling, "Man on third!" so he could go back to the plate and take his turn batting. They probably kept score in those games but he couldn't say who won or lost any of them, just that it was always fun to bat Bo home. The kid ran all sideways and sloppy, but the grin he'd get when he crossed the plate made up for all the silly that he looked on the way there.

In fact, now that he thinks about it, there was some version of the game that he and Bo used to play one-on-one. Had weird rules, seems like they made them up as they went along. There was a bat and a ball involved, and that might be the only resemblance it bore to the original game. He can't remember much about it, except the thunk of a solid hit, the smell of sweat, laughing until his stomach hurt, rolling on the ground with Bo, each declaring the other "out."

The cooking utensils hit the ground at his feet with a resounding clunk. As to where the sleeping bags roll off to, he has no idea. He's got better things to do that chase balled up bits of blue and green quilting around an old still site.

It takes Bo a few seconds to realize he's being chased, which forces Luke to slow down enough to let his cousin put a little bit of distance between them. No fun to win the game before Bo even knows that they are playing.

On the other hand, it's not much of a worthwhile activity if he doesn't win, so he only lets Bo get so far before he kicks himself into high speed and makes it a real chase. Bo's baseball cap flies off somewhere in that first burst of real effort, and not a moment too soon. If there was ever anyone who looked stupid in a baseball cap, it would have to be his cousin. Good riddance to that dirty old blue thing that doesn't have half the appeal of wild, blonde curls, bouncing in the sun—

Yeah, he needs to catch Bo quick. This lightweight running leaves too much time for thinking.

He takes Bo down gently, leaving no bruises to get whined about later. In fact, instead of complaints he gets giggles, as Bo stretches out to his full length in the dirt, hand up over his head, keeping Luke's hat as far away as he can. This might work if they were standing, or if Luke actually wanted the hat. Still, it's part of the game to pretend he's after what Bo's got and that it actually takes any effort to retrieve. So he crawls up over his cousin's body and lets himself get grabbed around the waist. Actually helps propel them as they tumble a few times, wrestling with hands, legs, lips and tongues. Winds up on his back with the weight of Bo above him, sucking in air in short little gasps through their noses, hands finding interesting paces to explore. Bo's are sliding in through the open snaps at the top of that old plaid shirt that's too tight for him anyway, while Luke gets his right hand tangled in all that hair he was admiring just seconds ago.

Yeah, it's been too long since he played with Bo. Making up the rules as he goes along, he reclaims his lips long enough to get a deep breath.

"You're out," he declares, and feels the giggle bounce its way up Bo's chest and land softly on his own lips before they're kissing again.


End file.
